The Daily Populous Wednesday July 2nd, 2025 night edition
Authored by abc7ny.com and submitted by NewSlinger

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani defeated former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the third round in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, according to ranked choice voting results.

The results released by the New York City Board of Elections on Tuesday, revealed Mamdani beat Cuomo 56% to 44% in the third round.

"Last Tuesday, Democrats spoke in a clear voice, delivering a mandate for an affordable city, a politics of the future, and a leader unafraid to fight back against rising authoritarianism," Mamdani said in a statement following the release of the results. "I am humbled by the support of more than 545,000 New Yorkers who voted for our campaign and am excited to expand this coalition even further as we defeat Eric Adams and win a city government that puts working people first."

Breaking down the ranked choice voting results

Mandami received 545,334 votes, Cuomo 428,530 votes and 53,534 ballots were exhausted, meaning voters had ranked neither Mamdani nor Cuomo.

The 1,026,783 total votes cast in the democratic primary were the most votes in a mayoral primary since 1989.

Mamdani picked up 99,069 votes, and Cuomo got 53,493 votes in the final round. Mamdani received twice as many votes from other candidates than Cuomo.

Cuomo campaign responds after results revealed

Even before ranked choice voting results were tabulated, the assemblymember finished with a wide enough margin that it was clear on election night that Cuomo would not be able to catch him.

The former governor conceded a little more than an hour after polls closed, but on Tuesday the results all but solidified Mamdani's political upset.

A Cuomo spokesperson had already downplaying the significance of Tuesday results before they came out, saying, "We don't expect the final tabulations to be all that revelatory. We'll be examining the expected makeup and opinions of general election voters while determining next steps."

His team expected a large share of City Comptroller Brad Lander's votes would go to Mamdani, after the two cross-endorsed each other hoping that together they had enough to beat Cuomo.

"Corruption, sexual harassment and abuse are not the answers to the city's problems. Andrew Cuomo is in the past," Lander said on Tuesday.

Cuomo's campaign is looking to see if these results offer the former governor any path forward as he contemplates whether to run in the general election on an independent ballot line.

A spokesperson for Cuomo released a statement after the results were released saying, "We'll be continuing conversations with people from all across the city while determining next steps."

The spokesperson also took a shot at Mamdani adding, "Extremism, division and empty promises are not the answer to this city's problems, and while this was a look at what motivates a slice of our primary electorate, it does not represent the majority."

Meanwhile, at a public safety announcement on Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams pulled no punches.

"Experience over experiment. That's where we are right now," Mayor Adams said. "Anyone that wants to defund the police based on their own words... right now we should not be doing an experiment."

As for Mamdani, he will face a general election field that includes incumbent Mayor Eric Adams as well as independent candidate Jim Walden and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

A 33-year-old democratic socialist and member of the state Assembly, was virtually unknown when he launched his candidacy centered on a bold slate of populist ideas. But he built an energetic campaign that ran circles around Cuomo as the older, more moderate Democrat tried to come back from the sexual harassment scandal that led to his resignation four years ago.

The results, even before they were finalized, sent a shockwave through the political world.

Mamdani's campaign, which was focused on lowering the cost of living, claims it has found a new blueprint for Democrats who have at times appeared rudderless during President Donald Trump's climb back to power.

The Democratic establishment has approached Mamdani with caution. Many of its big players applauded his campaign but don't seem ready to throw their full support behind the young progressive, whose past criticisms of law enforcement, use of the word "genocide" to describe the Israeli government's actions in Gaza and "democratic socialist" label amount to landmines for some in the party.

If elected, Mamdani would be the city's first Muslim mayor and its first of Indian American decent. He would also be one of its youngest.

Trump calls Mamdani a "communist," says he will "arrest him" if he interferes with ICE

For Republicans, Mamdani has already provided a new angle for attack. Trump and others in the GOP have begun to launch broadsides at him, moving to cast Mamdani as the epitome of leftist excess ahead of consequential elections elsewhere this year and next.

During a press conference on Tuesday, President Trump called Mamdani a "communist," and said he will arrest the assemblyman if, as mayor, he blocks ICE agents.

"Look, we don't need a communist in this country, but if we have, we're not going to be watching over him very carefully on behalf of the nation," Trump said.

Mamdani is a self-described Democratic socialist but has said he is not a communist.

During a press conference on Tuesday, President Trump called Mamdani a "communist," and said he will arrest the assemblyman, if as mayor, he blocks ICE agents.

The president also repeated incorrect speculation that Mamdani was in the country "illegally."

"A lot of people are saying that he's here illegally," Trump said. "We are going to be looking at everything, and ideally, he's going to turn out to be much less than a communist, but right now, he's a communist. That's not a socialist."

Mamdani later responded to Trump's comments saying, "The President of the United States just threatened to have me arrested, stripped of my citizenship, put in a detention camp and deported. Not because I have broken any law but because I will refuse to let ICE terrorize our city."

"His statements don't just represent an attack on our democracy but an attempt to send a message to every New Yorker who refuses to hide in the shadows: if you speak up, they will come for you. We will not accept this intimidation," Mamdani said.

Trump also said Mamdani has an advantage as a Democrat in New York City, but says there's a "good independent running," in reference to the current mayor, Eric Adams.

"Mayor Adams, who is a very good person. I helped him out a little bit, he had a problem," Trump said. "He was unfairly hurt over this question. He made a statement that this is terrible, New York City can't have all these immigrants coming in, and he was indicted the following day, and I said, that was a phony indictment, that was a Biden indictment. I said, don't feel bad, I got indicted five times."

Mayor Adams, for his part, didn't exactly create distance.

"Anyone that is an elected or not, should not interfere with federal authorities carrying out their mission," Adams said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Crafty_Gain5604 on July 1st, 2025 at 17:00 UTC »

I don’t know if there is anyone on the planet that thought he’d win by 12 points

Tech_Philosophy on July 1st, 2025 at 16:53 UTC »

Every person voting in the midterms needs to show up and vote in the primaries. It's the only way things are going to change. The primary arguably matters more than the general at this point.

Gyalgatine on July 1st, 2025 at 16:49 UTC »

Not even particularly close. +120k margin vs the +7k margin from 2021.